. Cyclopedia of farm crops : a popular survey of crops and crop-making methods in the United States and Canada. Agriculture -- Canada; Agriculture -- United States; Farm produce -- Canada; Farm produce -- United States. 224 CACAO CACAO. Fig. 318. Cacao tree of the Criollo" type, showing manlier of bearing fruit. 3ACA0. Theobroma spp. SterciUiacece. Figs. 318- 320; Fig. 119, Vol. I. By G. X. Collins. Chocolate and cocoa, the manufactured forms of cacao, are the product of the seeds of several spe- cies of Theobroma, a strictly American genus. Theobroma Cacao is the species producing the gr
. Cyclopedia of farm crops : a popular survey of crops and crop-making methods in the United States and Canada. Agriculture -- Canada; Agriculture -- United States; Farm produce -- Canada; Farm produce -- United States. 224 CACAO CACAO. Fig. 318. Cacao tree of the Criollo" type, showing manlier of bearing fruit. 3ACA0. Theobroma spp. SterciUiacece. Figs. 318- 320; Fig. 119, Vol. I. By G. X. Collins. Chocolate and cocoa, the manufactured forms of cacao, are the product of the seeds of several spe- cies of Theobroma, a strictly American genus. Theobroma Cacao is the species producing the greater part of the cacao of commerce, though T. angustifolia and T. pentagona also contribute. The discoverers of the New World found these plants in cultivation by the natives of southern Mexico and Central America, and the methods then in vogue have been but slightly improved, although the culture has been extended to practically all parts of the tropics. As with most cultivated plants, the natural dis- tribution of the species is a matter of some con- jecture, but there seems little doubt that cacao is truly indigenous in parts of Central and South America. In fact, it is rather unusual that a plant cultivated from such a remote period should resemble so closely the wild forms as is the case with cacao, wild plants found in the forests of western Costa Rica being sometimes used to stock small plantations at the present time. It appears probable that in the cultivation of this plant the principle of the fixing of atmospheric nitrogen by means of leguminous plants was first utilized by man, although of course without reali- zation of the true meaning of the method. The superiority of leguminous trees for shade in cacao plantations was well known to the early cultiva- tors, and it was only after many costly experiments that European planters reached the same con- clusion. Cacao is a small tree usually about ten to thirty feet in height, bearing its flowers and fruits on the old
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